EDTC 300

Tansi!

This week I have decided to learn colour terms in the Cree Language. Sounds easy doesn’t it? Well, it’s actually more complex than it sounds. I ended up doing a lot more research and learning a lot more than I thought I would this week!

So far, I feel that videos and audio clips are helping me the best to learn the language and use proper pronunciation. I began this week by looking for videos on YouTube. I came across two that I felt were very effective in helping me learn the colour terms.

When I came across the Colours in Cree audio clip, I noticed two columns…”Inanimate” and “Animate”. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?!?! I felt very confused and unsure of what to do. I needed to find out some background information to get things figured out.

I ended up coming across a Cree Literacy website. This website had all the answers to my problems!

Some things I learnt from this website are:

In English, we learn to name our colours just as we name shapes and animals. Cree works differently. WHO KNEW!

In Cree, colour terms are actually verbs, therefore we need to know both animate and inanimate forms for each colour.

This chart shows the differences for each colour term based on if its in prefix form, animate verb form or inanimate verb form.

Once I gained an understanding about the way colour terms worked in Cree, I decided to learn the terms in inanimate verb form. I did a short recording to demonstrate my learning.

Along with the videos I shared above, I also came across a few children’s books in which teach colours in Cree if anyone is interested in bringing this learning into their classroom.

When I was born, that was not the case. For the first couple of years of my life, technology wasn’t a huge part of mine and my family’s life besides the radio and our landline telephone. The internet had been introduced to the world, but we did not have access to it until I was a few years old. I didn’t even have a digital footprint when I was born!!! What is a digital footprint you may ask? It’s basically an online identity; information and pictures about a particular person that are posted online.

Technology is A LOT different in the world today than it was 25 years ago. As learnt in our lecture, 34% of children have a digital footprint BEFORE they are even born. I see this happening online all of the time. People post ultrasound pictures, create hashtags for their child, and even create their child a personal Instagram account…before they are even born!!! Children are now born into having numerous amounts of photos and information about them posted online, without having a say in it. And if children aren’t born with an existing digital footprint, 92% have one by the time they are a toddler. Crazy how things change over time!

There is a tremendous amount of new technology emerging in our world so quickly. One example I’ll share is the evolution of my cellphone. Within 10 years, I went from a phone with a tiny screen and t9 texting to a very large, full touch screen, portrait mode camera cell phone.

Nowadays, children are exposed to WAY more of a digital world then just the kind of cell phone they have. There has been a large change in our world…now there are millions of new devices, websites and apps to access everywhere, all of the time. In the video “An Anthropological Introduction to Youtube”, Michael Wesch discusses the evolving world of technology. He talks about the internet allowing for new forms of expression and identity, to connect with others in ways we haven’t been able to before and new forms of empowerment, community, strong voices and new possibilities. Michael Wesch says that “we are in the center of this media”. He thinks that “Media is not content; media are not tools of communication, but media as media mediating relationships…when media changes, human relationships change”.

In terms of education, I think that the evolving world of technology is beneficial in the classroom when used purposefully. There are so many beneficially edtech tools for lesson planning, classroom management, learning databases and educational games for students. One thing to note from our lecture though, is that children aged five to sixteen spend an average of six and a half hours in front of a screen each day. With that being said, 59% of kids under the age of 10 have social networking accounts such a Facebook and Instagram. This is somewhat worrisome to me because these children are still so young. I think that technology in the classroom is a great way to learn, but it needs to be used properly and not be over used as most children use technology all of the time at home as well.

Technology is an extremely important part of our lives as we all use it for basically everything nowadays. With that being said, I’m 100% guilty for being on my phone way too often. Sometimes is hard to take a break from technology when so much of our lives are intertwined with it. I use my phone for education, personal and social purposes all throughout the day. Lately, I do feel I need to cut back so I have been monitoring my screen time daily.

Overall I think our changed world of technology has positives and negatives in our lives. It’s important to understand how to use technology and ways in which it will benefit you. I have recently leant so much about the digital world and have found many resources that work for me…one being blogging! I’m loving it!

This is something I really wanted to learn because its something that can be used in every day life. This week I used the Cree FHQTC App to learn the numbers in Cree. This App is extremely helpful as it provides many different features to assist with language learning.

Here are some of the features that assisted me in learning numbers:

Cree FHQTC: Numbers

LEARN: This feature provides the number (visual), the spelling on the number and says the number out loud to hear how it is pronounced.

GAMES: This feature provides games to learn the Cree numbers. It categorizes the games from easy-hard.

QUIZZES: This feature provides quizzes to practice the Cree numbers. The quizzes include listening, speaking and reading.

I thought it would be hard to learn the numbers but after practising over and over, it is actually quite easy. I decided to create a video of me writing and saying each number. You can watch the video here.

These are the numbers included in the video.

1- pêyak

2- nîso

3- nisto

4- nêwo

5- niyânan

6- nikotwâsik

7- têpakohp

8- ayinânêw

9- kêkâ-mitâtaht

10- mitâtaht

I was so excited that I had learned the numbers 1-10 in Cree that I just had to share with others. I came across this Cree Number Song on youtube and basically listened to it over and over until I was able to sing it….decently at least (I’m not a very good singer, but preschoolers don’t know that, so shhh!). During circle time at my work, I taught them the Cree number song. For actions we used our hands and held up the number of fingers that we were singing. We all has SO much fun!! Unfortunately due to privacy regulations, I can not show a video of us as a group singing the song. I did however get a co-worker to take a small time lapse of myself doing the song so that will have to do!

Oh Twitter …the best way to discover whats happening in the world right now.

I’ve had a Twitter account since I was probably 14 years old. For the longest time, I thought Twitter’s main purpose was for sharing things like memes and funny quotes. But who knew Twitter was such a useful learning tool?!? Twitter can be used for so many educational purposes that I’ve never even thought of. One purpose of Twitter is for TWITTER CHATS!

What is a Twitter chat you ask? Well let me tell you!!! (I just learnt about 5 days ago LOL).

A Twitter chat is a public conversation around a particular hashtag. You can follow the discussion based on the hashtag and participate in the conversation. Twitter chats allow people to connect with one another regarding a particular topic.

This week, I participated in my VERY FIRST Twitter Chat. To participate in the chat, I used Tweet Deck to help organize my tweets and assist in engaging in real- time conversations. For my first Twitter Chat, I chose one that seemed pretty popular to the education community which is the one and only #saskedchat.

My initial thought was “I have no idea what I’m doing!!!!” but quite honestly, it went way better than expected. The chat was from 8:00-9:00pm. At first I thought that it was going to be so long but it ended up going so quickly and it was done before I knew it. The topic for the chat was Student Growth. For this chat, there were ten prompts. It went something like this: When I say:_______ You Say:_______

I will post photo’s of my chat here:

At the beginning of the chat I felt nervous. I thought “what if I don’t know the answer” or “what is someone judges what I say”…but that was not the case. Everyone was beyond welcoming in the chat. Everyone supported everyone. It was so nice to discuss Student Growth with many amazing educators. Twitter chats are a great way to discuss with one another about a particular topic. It provides a place to collaborate with other educators, to ask questions and learn new things.

I look forward to participating in more Twitter Chats in the near future. If you have any suggestions, send them my way!

Who knew there was something so great, such as Feedly! Well, I sure didn’t. To be honest, I didn’t even know what “RRS” stood for until just recently. I actually googled what it means so incase anyone reading this has no idea what I’m talking about, “RRS” means…Really Simple Syndication OR Rich Site Summary. WHO KNEW! Or maybe I’m the one out of the loop. Anyways, I got a Feedly account and it is a life saver. All this time, I found it so time consuming to look around for articles or blogs pertaining to specific topics. With Feedly, I am able to choose categories that interest me and all the content is right in front of me. Its GREAT!

Since getting a Feedly account, I have browsed around the website quite a bit to get familiar with it. I also got the App as it is more convenient. I chose what I was going to follow based on what I am interested in. Three of my main interests for finding content included Technology, Education and Early Learning as that is my primary focus in school.

When browsing through different blogs/sources, I looked at the title, number of followers and how many articles were posted per week for each. These specific things provided a starting point for choosing what to add to my feed. For example, if the title was good but there is only 1 post per week and 25 followers, I wasn’t sure that it would be a great source to follow. Once I found sources with a intriguing title, numerous followers and posts, I began to look at the articles within that source. By reading through the titles within a specific source I was able to determine if it was something that would be useful to add to my feed and benefit me as an educator. Now, with that being said…I am a very indecisive person so I added quite a few to my feed because, well, I just couldn’t choose!! Throughout the next while, I will be able to decide which sources are the most beneficial.

As mentioned, I chose my content based on my main interests relating to my journey in becoming a educator. A few of the sources that really stood out to me where Teach Preschool, Mindshift KQED and Educational Technology.

Teach Preschool provided many educational articles and activities focusing on early childhood education. It has a blog as well as provides resources relating to literacy, art, STEM, sensory skills, motor skills and classroom development. The content on this website will be beneficial for myself as an educator as well as for my future students and their learning.

MindShift KQED provides many educational articles relating to the health and well being of teachers, students and their learning. Im exciting to continuing reading from this source!

Educational Technology seems to be a great resource as it provides educational web tools and apps for educators. Since I am not very “techy”, I think this resource will be very helpful for me in trying to incorporate technology in the classroom.

All in all, I think I will learn a lot from many of these online sources. If anyone reading this checks out any of the ones I have listed above, let me know your thoughts! Like I said earlier, thank goodness for Feedly!!!

When I began this learning project I knew it wasn’t going to be easy…and so far, it has NOT been easy! Learning a new language takes a lot of time, effort, concentration, practice and patience.

This week I have been doing a lot of research to find different online sources to learn the Cree Language. Sounds easy right? Well no. My first thoughts were to download a bunch of “language apps” and play around with them until I decided which one I liked best. I did just that , and guess what…NON of the common language apps have the Cree Language!!! I downloaded Duolingo, Babble, and Rosetta Stone and there was nothing! I did some more digging on the internet trying to find online sources and I did eventually find some specific Cree Language apps.

As I continue to learn Cree, I will most likely narrow down which App I like to use best once I get more familiar with each of them. Most of them provide the English word, Cree word, a picture, and a read aloud.

I find learning a new language is very difficult, especially Cree because most words are significantly longer then English words. I don’t know anyone who speaks fluent Cree, so I decided to register myself in a Cree course at the University to supplement this learning process. By doing this, it provides me with additional practice, help and I am able to ask questions if needed. I have also been watching youtube videos and using Quizlet to help practice the language.

Lately, I have been practicing a “basic introduction” about myself. You can watch my video here.

The following is what I am saying in the video:

tānsi Sarah nitisiyihkāson (Hello my name is Sarah)

ēkwa North End ohci niya (and I am from the North End)

ēkwa Regina niwīkin mēkwāc (and I live in Regina right now)

okiskinwahamâkan ōma niya ōta… (I am a student here…)

…kihchi – kiskinwahamātowikamikohk (…at the University)

kiya māka? (and you?)

I wasn’t sure exactly how I wanted to document my learning. This is the very first video I’ve ever made – I promise I will improve my video making skills throughout the semester!!! (Any tips and tricks for making videos are always welcome LOL).

For my Learning Project, I have decided to learn a new language. What language you may ask? CREE! and I am SO excited! I have never learnt another language before besides some French classes in elementary school.

I don’t want to learn Cree “just because”. I want to learn Cree to not only benefit me, but to benefit my students. I currently work at an Early Learning Centre with most children coming from Indigenous backgrounds. Language is a huge part of identity. My goal is to learn the basics of the Cree Language and be able to teach it to my students. I am very excited for my journey in learning a new language and I hope that you will follow along with me!

I am learning the Cree language from scratch. In other words, I am a “beginner”. I plan to start with the basics. A few goals I would ideally like to accomplish are:

basic phrases for everyday life

counting

days of the week/months

songs

food

basic sentences (verbal and written)

be able to read a children book in Cree

To begin my project, I have been researching different online sources that I will use to learn the language. So far, I have been browsing YouTube and also came across this article which led me to the Cree Language Translator.

I plan to document my learning through videos for everyone to follow along with my progress. Stay tuned!

To start off, I should mention that this is my first year back at the University. I haven’t been in school for a couple of years so lets just say my educational technology experiences are limited. Due to this being my first year in the Faculty of Education, I have yet to have had a placement in a school classroom to observe what types of technology is used within schools. Later on in the semester I will be able to come back to this and add in some of my experiences from my field placements.

I currently work at an early learning centre for children 6 weeks to 5 years old. Educational technology isn’t used much in this setting as the programs focus is on play based learning. What I am familiar with though are some websites/Apps to stay in contact with the families. We currently use Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to showcase what the children do each day. We also use the Remind App which allows for quick communication between us and the parents. For the younger children we use the App called HiMama which allows us to document the children throughout the day while parents are at work. It allows us to document things such as food, bathroom, sleep and developmental milestones.

This is my first ever blog and let me just say I’m actually REALLY enjoying it. I have had zero experience with blogging until this semester. This semester I have to blog for three of my classes so learning how to properly create a blog came in very handy…thank you Katia! Im looking forward to using my blog to allow myself to be more creative, as well as a better thinker and writer. I think blogging will really assist me with my educational journey. A big part of being an educator is collaboration and sharing ideas. I look forward to doing this through my blog.

As previously mentioned,I have never blogged until now…but I have consistently followed a particular blogger for many many years. Though she has nothing to do with the educational aspect of things, I follow her blog based on my hobbies/likes/interests such as fashion, travel, and home decor. This blogger is the one and only Jillian Harris!!! When I think of blogging, I think of Jillian. Her blog always has great content, pictures and new ideas. Though my blog will be education based, I hope to create great content for my fellow colleagues just as Jillian does for her followers.